The present invention relates to a method of attaching inner leads to the metal electrodes of a semiconductor integrated-circuit die.
Conventional methods of inner-lead attachment employed in tape-automated bonding, for example, make use of bumps of a soft metal such as gold, which are formed on either the metal electrodes or the inner leads themselves. While these soft metal bumps facilitate the bonding of the inner leads to the electrodes, the formation of the bumps is an expensive process requiring separate equipment and extra labor, and the technology of bump-formation takes time to learn. The bump-formation process thus adds significantly to the cost of the completed semiconductor device.